Stockholm Syndrome
by Hella530
Summary: When the BAU team takes on a case about young blond woman getting and murdered they discover there may be another victim that is still alive and being held captive. But when Spencer is taken captive he discovers that not everything is clear cut.
1. Chapter 1 taking the case

Stockholm Syndrome

"Over the past two years he's kidnapped, tortured, then murdered over twenty five women, all young, all petite, all blond. He leaves them beside dumpsters wrapped up in a sheets." Hotch said as he put picture up on the board of the victims.

"Based on the way he placed them, wrapped in a sheet, fully clothed, hair immaculate, almost suggests remorse, but the postmortem wounds don't support that." Reid said as he looked through the file.

"So he continued to beat them after they died, that suggests a lot of anger. But the way he kidnaps them, beats them to death, dumps them a week later but then waits two weeks til he kidnaps another one. He seems to have enough control to wait to get them, but then he can't control himself when he does." Morgan added as he looked at the time line. "And he also placed them besides dumpsters, meaning he thinks they're trash and disposable."

"There's no sign of sexual abuse so he might be taking them because they remind him of his mother or another female family member that was abused in front of him that he's now trying to recreate, or a maybe they abused him and this is his way of getting back at them." Emily said as she looked at the board.

"Well they're waiting for us in Phillipsburg West Virginia." JJ said as she put a new picture up on the board. It was of a young woman, blond and smiling. "Megan Deet. Missing since Monday. And since it's Wednesday that means we only have about two days to save her."

"Everybody get their go bags, hopefully we'll find him before it's too late." Hotch said as they got up to leave.

**In a basement in Phillipsburg.....**

A young blond woman screamed as a switch landed down on her back, hard and fast enough to cut the skin in a thin cut. Megan Deet sat in a corner of the room, crying as she watched the young woman writhe in pain a the tall blond haired man whipped her. He stopped as the young woman started coughing and gasping.

"Alright, you're done for the night, her turn." He said as he started untying her wrists.

"No! Daniel please! I'm fine, don't hurt her please!" She begged before he started dragging her away from the heating pipe and tied her to the stairs.

"Shut up Lizzy." He said as he untied Megan and dragged her to the heater. He tied her up and started whipping her over her clothes, just like he did with Lizzy. The switch was already starting to cut into her shirt and skin. Lizzy sobbed and coughed hoarsely as the girl screamed. She silently prayed for something to change, but she didn't know how, she had depended on him for everything, she knew no other way.


	2. Chapter 2 all I have

Author's Note's: I'm so jazzed people like this story!

**Chapter 2. "all I have"**

While on the plane as they learned more about the case, including that a white van was seen driving away from the crime scenes, Morgan asked the question they all seemed to be thinking.

"If this guys killed twenty five girls why are we only being called now?" He asked looking frustrated. JJ sighed.

"Well for a number of reasons according to the sheriff. The first being that in the beginning he only killed prostitutes, drug users and runaways, people the local cops didn't seem to think about much according to her. The second being that they thought they would be able to take care of this on their own, they're not a big town but have seen their share of crime, didn't want to admit they needed help for a while. And the third being was that as a new sheriff she was pressured into being silent about the whole thing. I suggest we don't bring it up, when I talked to her over the phone she sounded pretty pissed off at the whole situation. Said she knew it was inexcusable for them to have waited this long. Okay, back to business....."

**Three hours later..............**

The team arrived at the station and when they went inside they saw a busy room full of people running around and looking busy

"Mrs. Fullman says Crystal was riding her bike that day!" One officer on the phone yelled to another across the room writing stuff on the white board.

"Where?" The female officer asked as she turned her attention away from the board to him.

"Monroe park." He called out then hung up the phone and walked over.

"Same park as Felicia and Heather, but Georgia was last seen in Rengrove." She said tapping the end of the marker to her chin. JJ cleared her throat, getting them to notice the team. "Oh, sorry, I'm Sheriff Harley Dean. This is Lieutenant Gail. We're glad you could come....you're the BAU team right?" She said, she seemed to be in a rush about things as she squinted her green eyes at them. She was no taller than five feet but stood out in a crowd due to her dark red hair and loud commanding voice, looking at her you'd think she was born and told the doctors how to cut the cord. And Lieutenant Gail was a small stocky man who seemed to have more energy than a squirrel with an espresso.

"Yes we are. My name is Jennifer Jareau, I'm the media liaison. And this is SSA Aaron Hotchner, Agent David Rossi, Agent Derek Morgan, Agent Emily Prentiss, and Agent Doctor Spencer Reid. We talked over the phone."

"Ah yes thank you for coming, sorry about all this, I found out the others here have been lax in gathering evidence." She said the last part loudly as she looked around at the station in general glaring at everyone. "But we have a separate room set up with white boards and maps for you all down the hall on the right, and in the room on the left is our break room so help yourselves, if you need any other information don't hesitate to ask." She said with a weary smile before turning to the Lieutenant. "Now where was Megan Deet seen last again?" She yelled across the room.

"Rengrove!"

"Gotcha." She said before writing that down too.

"Is this information on the boards in the room?" Reid asked. Dean pursed her lips for a second.

"No I don't think so, but help me wheel it in there and I'll help you get it written down." She offered, Reid nodded agreeing to help. "Gail, see if you can a hold of Deputy Max, tell him his lunch break is over, the FBI is here." She called to him before they started wheeling the board into the small room in the back. "Deputy Henry Max is actually one of most dedicated police officers here. I hate to call him off his lunch when he's finally taking one but he's actually the one who's been working this from the beginning. He's my second in command and he'll be a good asset to your investigation." She said to Reid.

**At a small diner two blocks from the station.....**

"They're here? Fantastic, you tell the sheriff I'll be there real soon." Deputy Max, a tall medium built man with dark black hair gray eyes and a scar from his right eye up into his hairline, the dark circles around his eyes showed he was a workaholic-save-the-world kind of guy. He smacked a twenty onto the counter. "Shirley pack up the rest of my lunch I'll be back before five to pick it up. Looks like the FBI is here for my serial murderer case, we'll catch this guy yet!" He said, brimming with excitement and determination before practically running out of there.

At the end of the counter a tall well built blond man sighed deeply before finishing his sandwich and slowly and surely standing up.

"Ma'am, my bill?" He asked, with a strange kind of graveness in his voice.

"Oh, sure Daniel, here." Shirley said to him nervously as she handed it to him. It examined before nodding and giving her exact change plus a dollar for a tip. "You-you have a nice day now." She said as she smiled apprehensively. He nodded to her before leaving. "Brrrrr, that Daniel Hayes sure gives me the willys." She told one of the other girls.

**In a small room in Phillipsburg..............**

The room is small with a twin sized bed and a small cot in the room, there's only one dresser put strangely enough a lot of pillows. Lizzy was cleaning the cuts on Megan's back with water and a wet cloth.

"Isn't there a way you can let me out of here?" Megan asked, trying not to cry.

"I'm sorry, no. He locks this room from the outside since I tried to help the last girl escape." Lizzy said sympathetically.

"Last girl?" Megan asked, sounding terrified. Lizzy winced.

"It's my fault really, if I hadn't of gotten sick, or lost my job..."

"Don't blame yourself, it's not your fault he's a monster."

"He's not a monster! He, he has problems that's all, and he can't talk to anyone so, so I tried to help, it's just, it's just..." She said trailing off as she started to sob. Megan turned around and pulled her into a hug as she sobbed harder. "I tried, it's my fault, I tried so hard!"

Suddenly the door swung open revealing Daniel standing there, eyes dark.

"I'm so tired of always taking care of you." Was all he said before he grabbed Lizzy by the back of her hair and started to pull her out of the room.

"NO! Lizzy!" Megan screamed as Lizzy looked shocked and grabbed onto his wirsts as she tried to lift herself up.

"No Megan, don't! Just stay here, it's okay!" She gasped as he dragged her out of the room and slammed the door, locking it. Megan banged on the door.

"LIZZY!" She screamed.

"No Daniel! Daniel please! AHHHHH!" She heard her scream as a thudding sound sounded from the basement, suggesting he threw her down the stairs. Megan cried as she put her hands over her ears.

"Oh god! Oh god someone help us!" She cried.


	3. Chapter 3 an unfortunate twist

**Chapter 3. An unfortunate twist**

"He's dumping them in the parks he gets the last victim from. How does he get them to follow him into his van? Even after all the murders?" Sheriff Dean asked as she stared at the white board. Rossi walked up to the board.

"There are two theories. The first is that he's handsome, charming, manipulative. He can charm them into his van without them raising a fuss or at least till he gets them close enough to take them out without anyone seeing. But what's more likely is that he follows them wait till they're alone then incapacitates them and takes them back. And he does this without leaving a mark on them according to the coroners report. All marks, whip marks, breaks, bruises, were made actually a day after they were taken." Rossi said as he studied the board.

"So he wait's a day then lets loose on them?" Morgan said as he looked at the pictures on the coroners report.

"I think this makes sense now." Deputy Max said as he looked at something in the file.

"What?" Hotch says as he walks up next to her.

"I can't believe I never noticed it before, but now that I see it and I look at the dumping patterns and how he acts when he's holding them. I think I figured it out now." He said as he looked at the board.

"What is it?" Hotch asked again. Max reached into the coroners report and pulled out a paper.

"This says that there were strange hairs on the sheet, two feet in length, and blond. I didn't think there was anything strange till one of the victims had really short hair, I'm sure if we test the hairs they'll all be from the same person, the same girl…" He said as he rubbed self-consciously at his scar.

"He's keeping a girl prisoner." Emily said, stunned. "Keeping her prisoner and taking his anger out on her in between girls."

"There's wasn't hair in the sheets when he was killing the junkies and hookers, only when he started killing the, uh, more respectable girls did the hair start showing up." Max said.

"The more 'respectable girls' as you put it," Emily said, looking pointedly at Max, who had the decency to wince and looked shamed at his own choice of words. "are more high risk victims, it's possible that he gained confidence with the 'junkies and hookers'."

"I'll have the medical examiners run tests on the hair." The sheriff said before she stepped out of the room to go talk to the ME.

"Tell me about the first high risk victim he took, she was important enough to him for him to take the risk." Hotch said to Max, his arms crossed.

"Felicia Gent, a waitress at Norah's Diner. She had no prior convictions, clean as a whistle." He said biting his lip while looking at the board.

"What is it you're not telling us?" Reid asked. Max shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, it's just…" He sighed heavily. "The other workers at the diner said she could act really cruel to the other workers, especially the new people working there. Especially Elizabeth Hayes. She was the head waitress, had nothing else really going on in her life, so I think she took this one bit of control she had and got, well cruel about it." He said as he looked uncomfortably at the board.

"You knew her didn't you?" Morgan asked, noticing his tense behavior. Max sighed.

"In high school, we were friends, she was the one with lofty dreams and aspirations. Guess things didn't quite work out for her, didn't work out at all." He said with a sigh.

"Wait, who is Elizabeth Hayes? You mentioned her specifically." Hotch asked. Max looked mildly confused for a second.

"Oh her? Just this quiet girl at the diner, didn't talk much to anyone they said. I think I have her statement right…" Max started looking through the files, looking more and more confused. "That's… strange, I don't have a statement from her at all. Not about Felicia, nothing." He paused for a second and squinted into middle distance. "In fact I don't even remember her being at the diner after while, she just, disappeared from there." Emily looked through a file and pulled out a picture that showed Felicia surrounded by a small group of men and women wearing a similar uniform. "That's a picture of Felicia and her coworkers."

"Which one is Miss Hayes?"

"That one." He said, pointing to a shy looking girl with long blond hair.

"Morgan and Reid, find out where this Elizabeth Hayes is now. She fit's the unsub's type and if she's really missing and her body hasn't been dumped, it's more then likely she's the one the unsub's been keeping." Hotch said as they grabbed their coats before they headed out.

**At Norah's Diner…**

"So how can I help you?" Said Candace Thompson, an older woman with short brown hair, a thick Southern accent and a warm smile.

"What can you tell us about Elizabeth Hayes?" Morgan asked. The woman's eyes got sad.

"That poor girl, it was absolutely horrible what happened to her. Unfair is what it is. I tried to vouch for her, but that Felicia girl, bless her heart, she always disliked her. And with her being the owners daughter-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but what exactly happened to Ms. Hayes?" Reid asked. Candace pursed her lips, her eyes going sadder.

"Forgot you weren't from around here. She got real sick, her cold wasn't going away, but she couldn't afford a doctor. She had to take some time off. Try to get better you know, but Mr. Gent, well Felicia told him that she was skipping out to spend time with George, Felicia's boyfriend. Now don't misunderstand, Lizzy blushed like a school girl whenever George was around, but she had too much self-respect to start anything with someone else's man. Mr. Gent believed her over us of course, made a big show over firing the poor girl." She sighed and leaned against the chair she was sitting in. "In the middle of the serving area too, she started crying, he started insulting her. Luckily one of us knew he was gonna go off and called her brother a few minutes before. He got her, just glared at Mr. Gent and walked her out. Say what you will about the boy, as cold as he may seem, he takes care of that girl."

"And you saw her after that?"

"Oh just to pick up her last checks, waited till he was out, a few days after she got fired Felicia got took, so he wasn't here much anyways. She looked awful though, she was so pale and coughing terribly."

"And have you seen her recently? Within the last few days?" Morgan asked.

"Um, not necessarily, I mean one of us sometimes takes meals to the home she and her brother live in, but he always answers the door, says she's too sick to answer." She says with a shrug.

"So you haven't even talked to her?" Reid asked looking surprised.

"Oh no I have, I talk to her on the phone once a week, we're still close. She's always too hoarse to talk loud though. So why did you need to know about her though?" She asked looking worried over her friend.

"We discovered that the previous officers forgot to take her statement." Morgan answered truthfully.

"Well, that's Lizzy in a nutshell, always fading into the background, no one ever noticing her." She sad with a sad smile. "Story of her life."

**Back at the police headquarters**

"So Elizabeth Hayes is alive and well, apparently she's just unemployed and ill." Morgan informed them as they came into the room. The sheriff looked puzzled.

"I'll go by her house tomorrow and get her statement, can't believe I missed her." Max said shaking his head.

"Well that's what happens when you get three hours of sleep at night Max." Gail said, shaking his head with a smile on his face as he dropped off the ME's report.

"Well, I want to talk to her and her brother Daniel, seems there was a problem between them and Ms. Gent before she was kidnapped." Morgan said

"Wait a minute, are you talking about the Hayes?" Sheriff Dean asked.

"Yeah, why?" She pursed her lips then shook her head.

"Nothing, it's nothing." Hotch sighed.

"If it might affect the case at all we have to know."

"Well, it's just that the Hayes children have been through a lot, it's long story. And it probably won't be of help anyways." She replied with a shrug.

"Some other time then?" Hotch asked with a raised eyebrow. Dean smiled tiredly.

"Maybe. Maybe some other time."

**In the basement of Lizzy Hayes and Daniel Hayes home**

Daniel Hayes opened the door of his sister's room. She looked up at him and saw him covered in blood. And just like every time after a killing he leaned against the door jam, placed his forehead on it and sighed. His face was blank, but his eyes were filled with pain and grief.

"You should have let me fire the pistol Lizzy, you should have let me take the shot." He said it every time, and just like every time she replied to him swiftly.

"And you shouldn't have let me turn the wheel, you should have let me go through with all I had planned." She stood and walked over to him and used her sleeve to wipe the blood off his cheek. She kissed his cheek lightly. "Looks like nothing ever goes as planned." She looked down at her blood covered sleeve and tears filled her eyes.

"This will be the last time, I promise." He said, his forehead still pressed against the door jam, wincing every few seconds.

"That's what you said last time, you shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Then she looked up at him. "Your head still hurts?" He nodded slowly. "You vomited yet?"

"When I discovered she was dead, for a second I thought it was you." He said, looking pained and sad. She put a hand on his arm.

"Maybe it would be better if it was, if next time it was me dea-" He pulled away from her and started to turn and walk away, but he stopped, turned back and grabbed her upper arm.

"The sheets are on the table, you know what to do." He let go of her arm quickly and stalked to his room and slammed the door.

She gathered the sheets and a towel and walked into the basement. She laid the towel over the throw up then went over to the body.

She untied the body and moved it onto the sheet. She wiped at her tearing eyes. She fixed her clothes, just like her brother had showed her to do. He said in everything else their respect was taken, this was the one thing he did to give it back. She remembered when her brother started to change, the pain and anger that seemed to simmer under the surface everyday. She knew most of it was directed at her, that's why they looked like her, and for the same reason he didn't kill her, was the same reason he gave them this shred of respect, in the end a part of him needed the world to see her as good, as okay. Because he knew the guilt she had for something she had once done, was still eating her alive.

As she started wrapping her up in the sheet she paused and glanced at the cellar door, and like she has done time and time before she wrapped six hairs around her finger and yanked. She winced and rubbed at her head before placing the hairs on her body and finished wrapping up the body. She sat next to the body for a minute, just staring at it. Then she leaned against it, laying her head on it.

"You're still warm Megan, I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I'm sorry this happened. I wish you could have gone home." She said with a whimper before breaking down and crying onto the body.


	4. Chapter 4 One is saved

**Chapter 4 One is saved and the other's in danger.**

**_Phillipsburg Police Station 5 pm_**

"We believe the unsub to be a blond Caucasian male in his late twenties, average build and height. We believe he is taking victims who look similar to a family member so he would have a relative who looks similar to the victims." Hotch said, as they started giving the profile.

"We believe he has a lot of anger and he's trying to hide it so he'll either be very stoic or he'll have a forced smile, like he's trying way too hard to be agreeable. And because he has to keep such a tight hold on his anger the way he looks will mirror that. His clothes will be spotless and pressed, he won't have a hair out of place. He will take immaculate care of himself so he doesn't draw anyone's suspicions, doesn't get attention." Rossi said.

"Now he does have a girl prisoner, someone he keeps at his home that he beats when he doesn't have another girl there, so he does have his own home and there's an area in or around his home where he can keep her and where the neighbors won't hear the screaming. He'll be buying enough food for three people, since they show no signs of starvation, and plenty of rope. "Reid added.

"Now if he is acting calm don't be fooled by it, he has a lot of anger and if cornered he will fight. So if you believe you found him, call for back up, make contact but don't let him know you know who he is. If you do, or if he suspects you he may strike out." Morgan added.

"We also believe he is driving a white van to dump his victims and that may or may not be his primary vehicle so be on the lookout for it." Emily finished. "Good luck out there."

**_The Hayes basement 4:30 am_**

Elizabeth sat beside the body of Megan Deet and wiped the blood off her neck when she notices something, a pulse. It was weak, but it was there. Her eyes get wide as she realizes Megan's alive and she quickly thinks up a plan.

"Daniel! Can you please take Megan's body away; I can't look at it anymore please!" She yells up the stairs.

"Are you sure?" He asked, coming down the stairs, drying his hair.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He nodded slowly and finished coming down the steps. He picked up the body and slung it over his shoulder.

"I'll go out in the van, I'll be back later."

**_Rengrove Park 5 am._**

"Hotch; Reid and I are down here at Rengrove Park. According to the pattern he's going to drop off the body here tomorrow." Morgan said into the phone as he got out of the van. Reid squinted through the early morning sunlight as he got out of the van. He sighed as he spotted something in the distance.

"Morgan look." He said as he pointed to a group of white vans that had the name of a local park maintenance company on the side of the van. "The white van seen heading away from the scene may have been on of these."

"That means he either works for the company or he's using a van like theirs to avoid suspicion. But the first seems more likely." He said to Reid before focusing on the phone.

"I'll call Garcia in a few hours and tell her to cross reference the employees who use the vans and our profile to see if there are any matches." Hotch said.

"Alright, we'll look around here some more and then meet you guys back at the hotel for breakfast." Morgan said before hanging up the phone. "Reid, tell me again why are we here at five in the morning?"

"This is when the unsub usually dumps his victims at these parks around this time. I wanted to see what the park looks like at this time. Check out the visibility." Reid said as he walked around, looking around at the fog. "Low visibility today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better."

"Right, well I'm going to look over here. Yell if you need anything." Morgan said before going over to a small copse of trees to see if someone could hide a body there. Reid walked around before noticing a lone white landscaping van near a dumpster, the doors in the back facing away from the dumpster; it was down a steep incline. He made his way down and walked around the dumpster carefully, not suspecting anything, and then he kicked something and heard a small groan. He looked down and saw a body wrapped in a white sheet. He dropped to the ground and pulled back the sheet to see the face. It was Megan Deet, and she was breathing. He stood up and dialed Morgan.

"Megan Deet is here. She's by the dumpster along the south trail-"He suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and he dropped to the ground. He saw blue sneakers enter his vision and they started to walk away as his vision grew dark. Daniel Hayes ran back over to his company van as he tossed the shovel he used to hit the man with into the back then grabbed the red rug her had wrapped the sheet wrapped bodies in and walked back over to Reid and began wrapping him up in it. Luckily as he did this he didn't notice Megan's breathing growing stronger. Soon he tossed the now wrapped up and unconscious Reid into the back of his van closed the doors and drove off. The whole time running through his head was 'this is a mistake, this is a mistake, this is a mistake'.

"Reid, I'm here. Reid?" Morgan said as he got out of his car after pulling up a few feet by the dumpster. He started walking up when he noticed Megan Deet, and saw her breathing her ran over and knelt beside her. He brushed the hair away from her face and felt her pulse. Her eyes fluttered open as she let out a pained gasp. "Hey there, now calm down, we're gonna get you to a hospital and you're going to be okay."

"He-help, help her." She gasped out before fading into unconsciousness. Morgan looked up and saw Reid's cell phone on the ground.

"Damnit Reid." He said before pulling out his cell phone and calling Hotch. "Hotch, we found Megan Deet, we need an ambulance, she's alive barely. And Hotch, the unsub's got Reid."


End file.
